Employment Lessons

A former special education teacher, who claimed to have engaged in a protected activity when she defended her teaching methods following a negative performance evaluation, could not show that the school district discriminated against her when it terminated her. Finding no evidence of discrimination, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the school in Frakes v. Peoria School District No. 150. After receiving an “unsatisfactory” rating based on several deficiencies,…

As I mentioned in May, there have been a number of positive regulatory or enforcement developments for employers, including (1) the repeal of the Volks rule, which would have changed the statute of limitations for OSHA recordkeeping violations from six months to more than five years, and (2) the rescinding of the memo establishing union walk-around inspection rights even in a non-union setting. Electronic Recordkeeping The good news for employers continues with developments related to the electronic recordkeeping rule and the associated…

On Oct. 24, the Office of Management and Budget announced that it has received a proposal from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to rescind its 2011 rule on tip pooling. The 2011 rule prevents employers from requiring tipped employees, who are paid less than minimum wage, to share their tips with traditionally non-tipped workers. The DOL has not released its proposal publicly, but its regulatory agenda for 2017 indicates that it wants to “rescind the current restrictions on tip pooling by employers that…

“Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” Countless employees have encountered this check-the-box question on employment applications. Over the years, however, several states have introduced “ban the box” laws to restrict the use of such questions and impose barriers to pre-employment screening processes. Expanding upon that activity, California Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed Assembly Bill (AB) 1008, which amends the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and imposes new restrictions on employers’ criminal background screening processes. The new law takes effect on…

Last week, in a speech at the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, the Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that his agency is aggressively stepping up worksite enforcement on two major fronts. His announcement raises the question: is your company ready? ICE Acting Director Tom Homan told attendees that the Homeland Security Investigations agency will increase – by four to five times – the worksite enforcement actions in the coming year. Quintupling the number of worksite enforcement actions certainly sounds…